Wasteland 2 Wiki Guide

Easter Eggs

Last Edited: October 16, 2014 at 4:16 PM

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Numerous Easter Eggs, Backer Shrines, and inside jokes are hidden throughout Wasteland 2, awaiting those with the cultural knowledge to pick up on them. Backer Shrines are special Easter Eggs designed by contributors to the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter campaign.

Atari Cartridges: Out in the Arizona world map, there's a hidden cache to the northwest of Ranger Citadel containing thousands of "Extra Terrestrial" Atari game cartridges. This is a reference to the infamous New Mexico burial of the ET game for the Atari 2600 which some say sparked the beginning of the 1984 video games crash.

Russian Radio Chatter: In Arizona, you might hear a radio call in Russian. What are they saying? The two characters are actually talking about Red Baychowski's radiation suits - they are trying to get his radiation suits but he refuses to sell to them, and instead trying to contact his brother Rick. Their names, Cheburashka and Shapoklyak, are references to two Russian cartoon characters.

Vax: In Arizona's Abandoned Railway map, you might encounter Vax - this robot can be repaired and gives you some dialog, but he's actually a reference to a character from Wasteland 1.

Goat Screams: There are a lot of goats throughout Wasteland 2. Many of their screams come from actual goats you might have seen in various YouTube videos around the Internet, but other screams they make are stock sound clips you've probably heard somewhere before, including the famous Wilhelm scream.

Junk Items: Many if not most of the game's junk items are references to something or other - Star Trek, 80s and 90s toys, music and culture, Spinal Tap, and much, much more. As a game with its roots in the late 80s, it's only appropriate you find Betamax tapes and boom boxes from time to time. There's also plenty of references to past RPGs, including a "Controller Chip #13" you may stumble upon that might sound familiar to Fallout fans.

Aberforth: As you head out from the Citadel there is a goat by the name of Aberforth, probably a reference to Aberforth Dumbledore from the Harry Potter Series.

Digging Up Ace's Grave: Right at the start of the game, you'll be at Ace's grave as it's being filled. You can actually pick up the shovel there and start digging it. General Vargas will warn you to stop - but only so many times...

Ranger Citadel Graveyard: Near Ace's grave is also a bunch of other graves. Many of the names on them are references to Kickstarter backers, and some also refer to the game's community forum moderators.

DNA Sequencer: In Ag Center's Central Basement, you can come across a DNA Sequencer machine, which will give you information about a given character you "speak" to it with. It has all sorts of things to say about your party... some more ridiculous than others.

The Fin: In Ag Center, you might come across a poster on a wall featuring a dashing young man with golden, curly locks of hair, known only as "The Fin". Who is this handsome devil? It's the alternate universe of inXile company president, Matthew Findley. Matt also appears in a few other references throughout the game, like "Fin-Tek", a technology company that manufactured a number of robots in the Wasteland universe.

The Night Terror: At Darin's Village, you can get through a booby-trapped, heavily-defended corridor inside the underground complex to find the Night Terror, a pint-sized green goblin creature. He has 8,000 MAXCON and will follow your party around, until he either dies or you feed him enough "candy". What does he like to eat? Body parts. This characters is a reference to the same Night Terror in Wasteland 1 that appears in Finster's Mind Maze.

No Mutants Allowed Bar: In Damonta, you'll come across a destroyed bar/strip club featuring some robots and dead Damontans. What's the deal with this? It's actually a reference to Fallout fan site, No Mutants Allowed, which an inXile producer also administrated for many years. No Mutants Allowed collectively backed the game during its Kickstarter campaign, and many of their community members showed up in this bar, either dead, on the guest ledger, or as robots.

Turtle: There's a turtle found at Rail Nomads Camp on its back. You can use Brute Force or Animal Whisperer to flip it on its feet... but if you follow it, very, very slowly, around the town, it'll lead you to a diggable mound with some loot in it.

Fallout Archives Library: At Rail Nomads Camp, there's a train car that's a library. It, the books, and the names on the library ledger inside, are actually a reference to the Fallout Archives web site and a number of its staff/contributors.

The Provost: At Rail Nomads Camp, you might find The Provost, a man who follows your party around, fights for you and speaks in Latin. Who is he, and what does he want? What incredible mysteries are at work? Well, you can let your mind run wild, but turns out, nothing really - he's just a bizarre denizen of the wastes that we put in to throw players off.

Beans:At Temple of Titan, you'll find a bunch of cowboys camped out near the gates who, among other things, are eating beans and passing gas, and being served by a man named Mr. Taggart. The more cultured gamer may notice that these fart jokes are actually a reference to a scene from the film Blazing Saddles.

Alien Invasion: On the California world map you might hear a radio call to Mr. Manners by a distressed citizen reporting an invasion by "serpioids", which Mr. Manners dismisses and says it sounds like the caller is "just reading random paragraphs out of some book". This is a reference to Wasteland 1's paragraph book, which contained much of the game's text and story, due to space limitations on disks of the time - and Wasteland 1 cheated the cheaters who read through it all at once by putting in fake stories, hints, and so on, including one featuring the Rangers on Mars, which was overtaken by "serpiods".

Bill Brothers: In California you'll come across Brentwood Dentist. The men there, Dentist Bill, Curly Bill, Murray Bill, Kill Bill, and Justa Bill, are all a variety of references to various things. Can you figure them all out?

Matthias' Monitors: Matthias appears on TV screens/monitors in a few locations around California, especially in Hollywood. His face on these screens and the way it looks is a reference to Cain from Robocop 2.

Signage: Some of the signs around Hollywood are based on real-world things. For instance, Angelyne, one of Hollywood's better-known celebrity icons, appears on a billboard in Hollywood. The developers actually licensed her for this purpose to give Hollywood an authentic touch. There are a few other references in there for the eagle-eyed.

Backer Shrines are located across the Wasteland (both Arizona and California) and have tons of references or quirky ideas some of the most prestigious Kickstarter backers submitted. These are located on the world map and are sometimes hidden until specific conditions are achieved.